steve olenski – Page 2 – THE SOCIAL CMO Blog

Why Marketers And Advertisers Should Not Listen To The Godfather

January 17, 2014December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Far be it for me to question The Don. I mean who am I to dare challenge Vito Corleone? And who I am to infuse pop culture into a given marketing and advertising topic?

Well of course you know by now I live to take pop culture and overlay into our world as witnessed by one of my most recent articles – an end-of-the-year piece which saw some of the best and brightest minds in marketing and advertising come together to share their thoughts for 2014. Of course there was a twist as I asked the players involved to not only include their predictions for 2014, but to overlay a pop culture reference that best fit and aptly described their insights. Read more

Is This The Future Of Mobile Marketing And Mobile Advertising?

December 29, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Being the pop culture savant I am – as witnessed by my recent article 2014 Marketing Predictions With A Twist (click on the link, you’ll see what I mean) – when I first heard the term “deep linking” I immediately thought of the 1970s flick The Deep starring Robert Shaw and Nick Nolte. I then had visions of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine dancing in my head.

Of course neither of these have anything to do with “deep linking” – a subject which many have wondered aloud as to it possibly being the future of mobile marketing and mobile advertising.

How Lowe’s, Zappos And IKEA Use Technology To Provide Added Value To Consumers

December 10, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

The evolution of technology within the retail and e-commerce space is shaping how consumers behave and interact with brands and savvy, smart retailers know that understanding shoppers’ behavior is key for success. These retailers realize they can utilize technology to capitalize on consumer needs and customize offerings to help significantly increase their bottom lines.

Here’s how companies are using technology to provide added value to consumers.

Has Black Friday Lost Some Of Its Retail Magic?

November 27, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Ok raise your hand if you knew the term “Black Friday” was first coined in the City of Brotherly Love, my hometown, Philadelphia. It’s ok if you didn’t know that. I was born and raised here and I didn’t even know it.

According to Time Magazine, “The term Black Friday itself was originally used to describe something else entirely — the Sept. 24, 1864, stock-market panic set off by plunging gold prices. Newspapers in Philadelphia re-appropriated the phrase in the late 1960s, using it to describe the rush of crowds at stores.”

As Johnny Carson would say, ‘I did not know that.’

What I do know, however, is the cultural, societal and retail phenomenon Black Friday has become. It has become symbolic for marketers and advertisers across the land as it signals the start of what they hope will be a very fruitful and beneficial holiday shopping season.

Brand Adoption Of Instagram Up 80% In One Year

November 5, 2013December 21, 2014 by Steve Olenski

A few weeks ago Jeff Bercovici of Forbes wrote a piece entitled Instagram Launches Ads, Promises, ‘We’ll Start Slow’ in which he told all us Instagram users that “the honeymoon’s over” and that the “long-promised introduction of advertising to the photo-based social network is upon us.”

In his piece Jeff made reference to a post from the official Instagram blog which says they (Instagram) will “focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community.”

Well based on the results of the recently released Instagram brand adoption study from Simply Measured,

What Every Marketer Can Learn By Going Lean

October 8, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

I never thought I would be penning a piece using the word “lean” in the title. Being six-foot three and weighing 250 pounds the word “lean” and I are not always in the same neighborhood, or country for that matter. But when I heard about a different kind of lean, one that brands and marketers and business owner of all sizes can benefit greatly from – my naturally investigative mind took over and I knew I had to learn more.

What I found was Lean, with a capital L. Some refer to it as “Lean manufacturing”, “Lean enterprise”, or “Lean production” where others just refer to it as “Lean.” Whatever name you prefer it all essentially means the same thing: maximizing customer value while minimizing waste.

Mobile Marketing Remains A Largely Untapped Opportunity For Marketers

September 5, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Ok, I am ready to come clean. I paraphrased the title of my article directly from a quote I read recently. It was so dead on and spoke directly to how I’ve felt for some time now when it comes to the topic of mobile marketing that I just had to “borrow” it. Why do you think I wrote an article last year entitled Mobile Marketing – The Elephant In The Room For Marketers?

As I wrote then and will write again here, the fact of the matter is that mobile marketing – despite all it’s continued hype and promise has been severely under utilized by marketers of all shapes and sizes.

The aforementioned quote, the one I “borrowed” comes from Jim Yu, CEO and founder of BrightEdge, a global leader in Enterprise SEO. The full quote is “Despite rapid and continuing growth, mobile remains a largely untapped opportunity for marketers.”

When A Brand Promise Backfires

August 20, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Like every other marketing-related word or phrase, the term “brand promise” has its fair share of definitions. The one I like best is one that I think captures the essence perfectly for it speaks to the relationship marketing aspect.

It was written by Jean Wilcox, one of the authors of the book AbuLLard’s ABC’s of Branding: “A brand promise is the statement that you make to customers that identifies what they should expect for all interactions with your people, products, services and company. It is often associated with the company name and/or logo.”

Wilcox also believes a brand promise is also the tagline for a given brand – and she’s right.